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To be honest, I had never heard about Startup Weekend until 4 days before the actual event. I heard about the event from a friend of mine who was going to attend, she was super excited to go and since she knew I was working on this business idea, she encouraged me to attend as well. I thought it sounded like a lot of fun and I really wanted to test my business idea, so without hesitation I signed up for the event without really knowing what the event was all about.

I soon found out that I had to prepare a pitch. The preparation of the pitch itself wasn’t that hard, I was more nervous about doing the actual pitch. I was so keen on getting my business idea out there and actually have people finding the idea as good as I thought I was (aka AWESOME!), so I wanted to practice as much as possible. That meant I had to pretend it was “the real thing” and pitch in front of people (myself in the mirror didn’t count). I figured I might as well just go out and find random people I could pitch to. And so I did. It was actually a lot of fun! I pitched to my neighbour, to the waiter at Sticks&Sushi, to the sales assistant at a very cool store, to a cute guy on the street...I even pitched to a homeless person (he didn’t really get the idea, but he liked my enthusiasm). All that pitching made me feel very confident whenever I actually had to do “the real pitch” and luckily I wasn’t the only one who thought the idea was great!

Eight other people thought the idea was great and we quickly started working on the idea. We changed the business model several times during the weekend, but finally we landed on a business model we felt confident about (actually it was the same idea we initially were going with on Friday night, but yeah, all I can say is that so many creative minds at the same time invite chaos ;)

I could write several more pages about the working process, but let me just give you the short version: We worked really hard during and weekend and then pitched the idea to the four judges and we (freaking!!) won! I was super super happy but also a little overwhelmed since I didn’t even know what Startup Weekend was just 5 days ago and here I was- standing as a winner of the entire thing. Pretty awesome.

Startup Weekend was truly an amazing experience for me. Not only because I won, but really because of the experience.

It has also been a great steppingstone for my business since I continued to work on the idea after the weekend and now it is finally a reality!

Now you heard about my experience and now I want to tell you why I think you should attend!

1: Test your idea: If you have a business idea but not sure whether it will work, this is your chance to test it! And don't be afraid that anyone might steal your idea. Because nobody won’t. Some people are so afraid that someone might steal their idea and therefore keep the idea all by themselves, which is the worse thing to do ever. It is very rare that people will have the same passion (and most times also knowledge) to succeed with the idea as much as you do. So don’t you worry about that. At all.

2: Meet awesome people: I can’t underline enough how awesome people are at startup weekend. The energy, the kindness, the diversity, the willingness to help..it is truly amazing. And you will have so much fun!

3: Meet a potential co-founder: Not only do you meet awesome people, but it is also your chance to meet a potential co-founder. Startup Weekend is all about team working, so you really get to experience working with different people.

4: Learn something new: People have so diverse backgrounds, so it is guaranteed you’ll learn something new. If you are new to entrepreneurship you will get a lot of valuable knowledge on starting a business. And you will learn some fancy words, such as “validating, scaling and lean startup”.

5: Win awesome prizes: Of course Startup Weekend is (after all) a competition itself, but during the weekend you can also win some prices. I won a mini ghetto blaster, which I still use on a daily basis (I don’t really throw huge parties, so the low volume of the loudspeakers works just fine for me..yeah, I’m that boring).

6: Challenge your stress-level: Startup weekend is SO intense. You barely sleep the entire weekend and your brain thinks non-stop. Recommendation: Take a day off after participating.

In short: If you are up for an amazing experience (and perhaps a little bit interested in entrepreneurship)- this is the event for you!!

Thank you to Mette Maria for sharing her story and experience with Startup Weekend.

If you, like Mette Maria, has participated in Startup Weekend Copenhagen and have a great story to share, please do contact us with it. We would love to also share your experience at Startup Weekend.